Fast Italian Flatbread Pizza

Instead of making that great pizza crust from scratch, why not use some store bought (there I said it) garlic flavored Naan.  I found it was worth the time saved and delicious.  Choose your toppings well!

For this creation I caramelized some onions in olive oil and a bit of chicken broth.  That was the hardest part!   Spread a bit of tomato sauce or your favorite pesto, then just begin to layer on your toppings.   I went with sliced Roma tomatoes, dried basil, minced garlic,  a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese, those precooked onions,  handfuls of fresh spinach and a lower fat choice of goat cheese crumbles.  Pop them in the oven (400 degrees for about 10-12 minutes) or on the grill and you have an easy dinner!

Of course, nothing takes the place of a rustic homemade pizza crust but this is pizza in a crunch! 

Hawaiian Style Steelhead Trout

Dinners are getting lighter and easier since the weather has improved.  More salads, meatless dishes and loads of veggies on the grill.   That means less dishes to wash and I'm good with that!

Grilling fish in foil is a fast way to get a meal on the table.  All of the prep work is done ahead of time so you can enjoy the company of guests or family.  This is a highly recommended way to steam fish and lock in flavor and moistness.  Plus, you can be as creative as you want to be.  Add different herbs and spices; You really can't go wrong or make mistakes!

Hawaiian Style Steelhead Trout
serves 2

1 large fillet of trout, deboned

a piece of foil large enough to encase the fish in

salt and pepper

1-2 garlic cloves, minced

fresh ginger zest, 1 Tbsp

1/4 cup chunk pineapple

handful of arugula or spinach

a drizzle of olive oil

a drizzle of maple syrup

Lay out the seasoned trout onto the foil, skin side down.  Spread with garlic, ginger and the pineapple.  Drizzle with maple syrup, add the arugula and a drizzle of olive oil on top.  Close the foil packet sealing corners well.  Place in the oven or on the grill.  On a hot grill they should take about 10-15 minutes, at most.  In the oven at 400 degrees. allow them to cook on a cookie sheet for about 20 minutes.  The fish will steam perfectly along with the arugula or spinach.  YUM!

Excuse the picture.  It looked so yummy I forgot to get the "before" picture!!

A Date with Chicken Salad

What would we do without chicken?  When in doubt, make something with chicken, right?  It's so versatile and easy to disguise.  For this meal, I wanted to create a chicken salad that would be a little out of the ordinary.  Add dates!   With a few ingredients we had a nice light dinner - very Spring-like!

Chicken Salad with Dates
serves 2

2 cups pre-cooked chicken breast meat, chopped.  I baked
 them with a little olive oil and herb de Provence

10 dates, chopped

1 handful sliced almonds

1 Tbsp red onion, chopped

2 Tbsp organic mayonnaise

1 tsp organic horseradish mustard

Place all the ingredients into a bowl.  Mix well and mound onto salad greens, with avocado slices and maybe a bit of wonton strips for crunch.  Drizzle with your favorite dressing.  This would be great in a sandwich, too!

Artichoke Baked Rotini - April Pasta of the Month

Because I'm ALWAYS trying to eat right and better, I opted to make a pasta dish with whole wheat pasta.  I've tried several brands over the years and most brands  never "turned me on".  So, either my tastes are changing or the food companies are improving their alternative pastas.    Instead of it tasting healthy (dry and unappealing) this pasta had a nice nutty flavor to it.  Of course, it helps when you add cheese!  Everything tastes better with cheese!

My artichoke baked rotini is also meatless, so I'm already headed on the right track to better health, right?  You can prepare it ahead of time and bake at a later date....for company.  But, it doesn't take long to throw it together for your family during the week!

Ingredients:

2 cups whole wheat pasta (dry)

boiling pasta water

salt and pepper

1/2 chopped or sliced onion

2 garlic cloves, chopped

1 handful of basil, chopped

1 roasted red pepper, chopped

1 12 oz bag of artichoke hearts (frozen Trader Joes are excellent)

1/3 cup bread crumbs, seasoned

4 oz mascarpone cheese

1/3 cup Parmesan cheese, grated

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Boil water for pasta and cook rotini until al dente.  Drain, reserving some pasta water for later, and set aside in the large pan.

In a large skillet, saute onion in a little olive oil and then add the garlic, red peppers, basil, artichokes  and cook together for about 5-6 minutes.  Add the skillet contents to the pasta along with breadcrumbs, mascarpone and most of the Parmesan.   Mix well,  salt and pepper to taste.  You may need to add some of the pasta water to get a creamier consistency.   Pour into a 9x13 baking pan.  Sprinkle with more Parmesan.   Cook uncovered in the oven for about 20 minutes.  You can add more mascarpone for a creamy pasta, but it was nice the way it was.  Enjoy!

Quinoa Cup Cake

No, this is not a recipe for a sweet cupcake with quinoa as the main ingredient, although I will be making some muffins with quinoa in the future.  Hubby put in a recent request for some "meatless" dinners!  All I can say is, "be careful what you wish for"!    As he arrived home last night I was throwing stuff in a bowl, scary!  He knows after almost 40 years of being together to "trust me"!    And he did, and he was pleasantly surprised or at least, he should win the best actor award!

This post is not about that dinner (in the future) but the following day for my brunch.  I use that word loosely...  Instead of a savory quinoa I wanted to try a sweet concoction.  Here it goes...

Ingredients

1/2 cup pre-cooked quinoa

1 tsp agave sweetener

1/4 cup pre-cooked applesauce  (I make a batch once in a while to go with yogurt or oatmeal.  1-2 apples, peeled and sliced, a little water, cinnamon and stevia packet.  Boil and simmer for a while...done.)

2 tsp vanilla Greek yogurt

a sprinkle of cinnamon

 a drizzle of agave for garnish

Mix the quinoa and agave together so it's sticky.  Place in a mold or 1/2 cup container, press down and flip over carefully on a serving plate to remove.  Presentation is everything!  Garnish with apples, yogurt, cinnamon and a drizzle of agave.  What satisfying, tasty treat, seriously!  This is one serving but can easily be doubled.

Pan Fried Oysters

Yes, you heard it right.  Pan fried oysters.  Growing up I was exposed to many different and unique foods.  It was a time when avocados were not yet trendy, so I didn't know how to appreciate them.  At one of my childhood homes we had a huge avocado tree that would weigh heavily with those green gems.  The tree was so large that my sister and friends would play house beneath the spread out branches.  A gigantic natural tent!

Living on the coast I was able to experience the freshest seafood.  My father would buy oysters, probably not to my mom's liking, and  cook them with a saltine cracker crust.  I liked them but it wasn't my favorite.  Abalone was the best!  Good luck trying to get a hold of abalone these days.

Oysters have become somewhat trendy, too!  On a trip to San Juan Island I sampled barbecued oysters.  Wow!  I need to try that!  On another vacation to the coast above San Francisco, the oyster joints are plentiful and they're served so many different ways.   In soups, chowders, Rockefeller, raw, etc.

Until you can acquire the taste for raw oysters, try this recipe at home.  You'll love it.

Ingredients:

1 jar (6-8 oz) of oysters

1 egg

1/2 cup flour for dusting

1/2 - 1 cup panko bread crumbs for coating

1 Tbsp butter

2 Tbsp olive oil

hot sriracha chili sauce for garnish (optional, but good)

Set up a dipping station with flour in one bowl, egg in another and panko in the third shallow bowl.  Heat the butter and oil.  Drain the oysters.  Dip in flour, egg and panko until done.  Add to the pan and cook until golden brown on one side, turn and cook on the other.

In progress

They don't take very long to cook, total 8-10 minutes or so.  If you like a little spice add the sriracha chili sauce.  You won't be sorry!

Test Kitchen Needed for Limoncello Cake

The search is on for a test kitchen  person who would like to "try" the limoncello cake recipe that did not work very well for me.  I live in some altitude and would like someone at sea level to bake this cake.  The cake had great flavor but the texture was ALL wrong!  Or maybe, I expected too much?!

If you're up to the task, bake it and come back to comment with your results.    Here it is:

Butter and flour a pan (I used a bundt pan)

3 cups flour

4 eggs

1 cup sugar

1/4 tsp lemon zest

3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

2/3 cup milk

3 Tbsp limoncello

1/2 tsp confectioner's sugar (powdered)

1 Tbsp baking powder

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Have your greased and floured pan ready.  Beat the eggs and sugar together in a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer.  Add the flour, lemon zest, oil, milk and limoncello and stir with a spoon until combined.  Add the baking powder and confectioner's sugar and stir again until blended well.  Spoon the batter into the pan and bake about 40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Let the cake cook completely, and place on a serving plate.  Dust with additional powdered sugar or make a glaze of lemon zest, confectioner's sugar, a bit of limoncello and milk or water.  Pour over the cake and serve.

Let me know how yours turns out.

Easter, Birthdays and an Engagement!

Easter has always been a joy to me.  It signifies the beginning of Spring, the stirring of dreams, a fresh beginning, flowers...everything that is good!  I could go on and on.  This year...a few surprises.   We celebrated Easter, of course, but also my dad's 83rd birthday!   How awesome is that?!




Oops, where's the 8!


I mentioned in a previous post that I'd be cooking the Easter meal along with creme puffs and limoncello cake.  Everything was going smoothly, the lamb roast was "resting" the artichokes just finishing up, asparagus a roasting and a rendition of Tyler Florence's scalloped potato gratin was in the broiler for the last 5 minutes.  And then, the news of the day, the month, okay, the year!  My son had proposed to his lovely girlfriend that morning and it became "official".  I can't begin to explain how HAPPY I was.  There was tears of joy...(I'm the one who sees a dead cat in the road and I can't stop crying!!  I know, that's weird, but I get emotional really easy)  I cried as my son drove away after getting his driver's license.  (Maybe I was scared!)  I cried bawled when we drove away from Monterey after helping him move there.  I'm just a big cry baby!!

So, after all the hugs and kisses, I started to smell that burnt food smell!  Oops, the potatoes should have been removed a while ago.  Oh well... I'll make them again, post them with a pretty picture.    They actually came out okay, just a little brown on top, and unless everyone felt sorry for me, the family must have liked them...they were devoured.

The limoncello cake was another story.  I don't have the origin of this recipe...it just showed up in my "to do" file.  It is going to need some revisions.  The taste was good but the texture was, shall I say, not fluffy at all.  If it were to sit a few more days, I could possibly make hockey pucks out of it.  Remember, I'm not a baker, I'm a cook!  I will post the recipe (as is) tomorrow and I'd love for someone living at sea level to try it.  Then, let me know if it works for them, please!



My son's first Easter with greatgrandparents.  He grew up too quickly!



Creme Puffs - First Edition

I've always wanted to try my hand in pastry making, especially creme puffs.  They're supposed to be easy to make....pretty strait forward, unless you  live in an altitude of over 5500 feet.  Baking recipes need to be tweaked here and there and I've never mastered those tricks, not even now as I give you my first edition creme puff.

My mother-in-law makes them on a regular basis, at least every Easter.  How hard can they be and hers always came out great until she attempted to make them for her daughter's wedding, in my kitchen at only 4200 elevation.  Of course, we were all disappointed when something went terribly wrong with the so called "easy" creme puff.  Enter into the altitude zone, not for the faint of heart!

I knew it would be a challenge going in but what did I have to lose?  A bit of butter, flour and a couple of eggs?  I went onto the internet to compare recipes.  I chose one which I won't name because the "hints" on how to bake a successful batch of creme puffs were inadvertently left out.  And it was probably the most important step.  I won't post the recipe (there are a million of those online) but I'll leave you with the "secret"...or one of them.   Pierce the creme puff as soon as the baking time expires to release the steam or they will look like this.

I salvaged these by putting them back into the oven to "puff" more and crisp up.  Hooray...we have creme puffs!

As soon as I perfect these I'll post the other secrets for high altitude yummy creme puffs!  Happy Easter to all!

Easter Dinner - Planning

What goes into the planning of my Easter Dinner.  Last year I decided to carry on a sporadic tradition of making a Czech delicacy, kolache.   One of my grandmothers would always bring these over for us to devour.  She'd make them with prune, apricot and a cheese filling.  Kolaches are not an easy recipe because of all the kneading and rising, etc, so I really appreciate her contribution to the Easter meal.

This year I'll be making most of the meal at my mom and dad's home.   Mom is STILL recuperating from her second surgery on her ankle/tendon and is non-weight bearing again.  My dad , I'm sure, is exhausted from being her caregiver and the family helps out when we can.  They've always been there for me, so it's the least I can do!   

Of course,  we'll have leg of lamb, real scalloped potato gratin, asparagus and baby "unfried" artichokes, if I can find them in this town.  I'm a little stumped on what to prepare for dessert, not that we need something sweet, but hey, it's Easter.  No peeps for me!  Am I the only one who thinks those are disgusting?!   I usually tried to trade them with my sister who loves them to this day!  Just give me chocolate.  So, it's surprising that every dessert I'm contemplating has not a bit of chocolate in it.

I think about cream puffs (not that I've made them before, but my mother-in-law whips those up every year).  Maybe, carrot cake, since my dad's birthday is the day after Easter, and that needs to be celebrated.  Then there's a recipe for limoncello cake that looks interesting!  Last, but not least on the list,  is a passion fruit chiffon pie.  My other grandmother used to make  a wonderful lemon chiffon pie on a regular basis.  I wish I would have gotten her recipe before she "left".  I remember barely being able to peer over the edge of the counter as she methodically threw in the ingredients.  It looked like magic to me at the time!

Whatever I decide to make....I know I'll be creating memories every time we sit down together and that's what it's all about anyway.  

Sugarless Chocolate Chip Cookies

Who doesn't have a fondness for cookies?  Somehow, they transport me to my childhood.  Whether they were  Tollhouse chocolate chip made by my mother or snicker doodles or rice crispy treats at grandma's house, cookies were always a welcome comfort dessert. 

I stumbled across this basic recipe for applesauce cookies from delish.com and made several revisions.  Instead of the required nuts, I just poured in some mini chocolate chips.  Must eat chocolate......yummmmmmm!  That's my new meditation chant phrase!

Ingredients:

1 cup flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2/3 cup mini chocolate chips

1 cup quick oats

3/4 cup raisins

1 cup applesauce

2 eggs

1/2 cup vegetable or canola oil

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 cup nuts (optional)

Preheat the oven to 375.  Mix all the dry ingredients together in a large bowl.  In another bowl put your wet ingredients, stirring well.  Blend the dry with the wet.

Spoon the dough  onto a parchment lined cookie sheet.  Bake for 8-10 minutes.  Cool and eat.  Makes about 3-4 dozen.